Heck of a Way to Start a Week!

Welcome to my Monday morning!

That's right, it started off with a very flat tire (the gauge wouldn't even register the tire pressure, that's how low it started!).  Why is it flat?  Who knows, but I fully expect that when I leave work, I'll be out there airing it up again.  Oh goody - now it's raining.

The only thing that could make this day worse, a trip to the dentist!  Oh wait, that's this afternoon!

...sigh...Can we go back to Saturday? 

Busy, Busy, Busy

I found this on my cousin's blog and thought it very applicable to life right now:

Let’s be honest; it’s rather easy to be busy. We all can think up a list of tasks that will overwhelm our schedules. Some might even think that their self-worth depends on the length of their to-do list. They flood the open spaces in their time with lists of meetings and minutia—even during times of stress and fatigue. Because they unnecessarily complicate their lives, they often feel increased frustration, diminished joy, and too little sense of meaning in their lives.

~ Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Life doesn't slow down on its own.  We have to make time for the important things and not let perceptions and unnecessary noise cloud our vision of what's most essential to our growth, happiness and eternal progression. 

Pizza Time!

For dinner tonight, I decided to make pizza.  While Samantha is a little young yet to help out in the kitchen, she loves to watch me cook, so I decided to get her involved!

Samantha helped make the crust this time.  She watched as I gathered all of the ingredients and got them in the mixer.  Then, from time to time, I would stop the mixer and let her smell and feel the dough.  We talked about sticky, dry, the smell of the yeast and flour, and how to tell when the dough was ready.  She was a bit hesitant at first to handle the dough, but eventually, she got excited about it and it was all I could do at that point to keep her a safe distance from the mixer!

I'm torn about her growing up!  I love seeing her learn and experience new things and can't wait to do things like make cookies together, and such, but at the same time, she's growing up too fast!! 

Every day a new adventure...onward!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is here!  It's one of my favorite times of the year!  I love the decorations, the crisp Fall air, all of the colors - it's the best!

This year was Samantha's first experience actually trick-or-treating at houses!  Just as with the Ward Halloween Party on Friday, Samantha dressed up in her UW cheerleader costume and me and Eddie in our UW sweatshirts. 

We started at Grandma's house - given her experience at the Halloween Party, Samantha knew just what to do this time.  She rang the doorbell and when Grandma answered and handed her candy, she dropped it right into her treat bag and held out her hand again for more candy! :)

After Grandma's, we went to the house where Samantha goes for "daycare" to trick-or-treat.  Samantha was fascinated by their jack-o-lanterns! 

If you look closely, you'll see that's the Lincoln Memorial carved into this pumpkin!

She again rang the doorbell and stood there prepared to drop candy into her candy sack.  They were so cute with her!  They had a new little Halloween board book and a bouquet of lollipops for her!  She was so excited!!

We headed back to our neighborhood, stopping at our Bishop's house on the way home.  Samantha was so funny!  After they gave her a treat, she went into their house and over to their candy bowl to get more!  So cute!

We had to hurry home to give candy to the trick-or-treaters headed our way so while Ed answered the door, Samantha and I went to a few houses on our block.  For just the few houses we went to, she sure got a lot of candy...maybe that's because each house gave her 5 or 6 pieces each!!  :)

All of us had a great Halloween experience!  I love this time of year!

Halloween Party & Trunk-or-Treat

Tonight was our Ward Halloween Party at church.  So we got all dressed up in our costumes and headed over to the church.  This year, Samantha was a University of Washington (Huskies) cheerleader!  Eddie and I were her "fans" (we wore our UW sweatshirts). 

What Halloween outfit would be complete without a glow stick?



The cutest cheerleader ever!

At the party, they had wide variety of carnival-like activities for everyone.

Samantha loved the jack-o-lanterns!

At the ring toss

Fishing for treats

A donut-eating booth (supposed to be without hands...oh well :)

Of course, there was the "Trunk-or-Treat."

This was Samantha's first time actually trick-or-treating and I think she really liked it...after she got the hang of it!  By the end of our trip around the parking lot, she was really good at accepting the candy and dropping it into her treat sack!  Those few teeth she has came in handy in nibbling a few of those treats too!!

Stamp Camp

Stamp Camp comes around twice a year - today was the day!  It's a day when a bunch of "stampers" get together to learn new techniques and complete projects, usually cards of some sort.  May sound silly to some, but it's a lot of fun!  It usually provides inspiration and, hopefully, motivation to get started on homemade Christmas cards! :)

This Stamp Camp was not my favorite - learned a few new tricks, but in general, I was disappointed that there were no Halloween or Thanksgiving-themed cards, and one of the cards in particular was so complex, I would never make it again!  It wasn't necessarily difficult, just too many steps - I like super cute, super easy cards!

You can decide though - here are the cards we made today (sorry, the pics are kinda blurry):

This was a cute little window card...but you have to buy this
expensive machine and die cuts to ever make it again, ugh!